Sunday, February 21, 2010

Whew!

It's been busy. I've been saving this picture from our Boyden run 2 weeks ago as it's a classic. Perfect day, mild temps with a light snowcover and apparently good jokes all around. I think the joke here was me telling the guys to 'pretend to run' for the camera which I'd just propped up on a convenient mailbox.
The running/training has been rolling along albeit on the slow and tired side as I've struggled with some of the key workouts laid out in my plan. The mile repeats and marathon pace runs have been sub-par performances compared to previous workouts in the build. For example last week's 6 mile MP resulted in an average pace of around 8:30/mile, nowhere close to the hoped for 8:00/mile which seems to be my 'tempo' pace at this point in time. It's highly frustrating when that used to be my default 'jogging' pace. More work to do I suppose...

At least my weekly mileage is now in the mid-40ies and today's 18 miler was the 1st decent long run since PEI. There was no Boyden meeting this weekend with everyone off in different directions so it was me home alone doing the long run here at home. The weather was ideal (more like April than February) with +1C, light winds and a few snow flurries. Typically we'd expect -10 to -15 and 3-4 layers to keep warm but not today! The run went very well, if not on the slow side, as I just concentrating at keeping good form and not slogging along. It got a little tough near the end at 2.5hrs+ but I managed and later quickly found my trusty couch for the rest of the day.

More of the same is planned in the coming weeks and I hope to get through it in one piece as my work pressure also seems to be ramping up at the same time as my running (so what else is new?).

Have a good week and "Go Canada!" at the Vancouver Olympic games!

9 comments:

Jamie Anderson said...

Well done! No doubt you'll climb back to where you want to be. And sorry in advance for USA beating Canada in hockey. :-)

DawnB said...

at least you have a plan, i think i have a marathon coming up too but no plan to follow, thats my life.

Trevor said...

Hang in there Mike - with warmer days just around the corner, and Big Sur getting closer, I bet you'll soon find some extra pep in your runs.

Ewen said...

Yes, sorry about that thrashing in the hockey. And sorry about us winning the women's half pipe and your bloke crashing in the ski-cross ;) "Go Australia!"

Hang in there. I'm sure the pace will pick up and effort become easier with the melting snow.

bricey said...

I can guarantee you that Canada will do better than Ireland in Vancouver!! Although, we do have our own female "cool runnings" team this year - so you never know!!

Love2Run said...

The thrashing we're getting on the competitive field has got to let up soon. That hockey game really hurt but Jamie did warn me. I predict we'll get a 2nd chance in the gold medal game!

Ewen, what snow? It melts as fast as it falls here lately but there's hope for a good one later this week.

Thomas said...

Things seem to be coming together for you just in time - and there's still time for Team Canada to get a grip.

Michael said...

"mid tamps", looks damn cold. Now onto more serious things, how about the hockey game (7-3)... I love it!

Go Canada Go!

MB said...

GTG CN for gold! Winter be gone.